Canvas House for co-living / Ministry of Design

Curated by Hana Abdel
Canvas House for co-living / Ministry of Design
LODGING, RENOVATION, COLIVING • SINGAPORE
Interior Designers : Ministry of Design
Area : 350 m²
Year : 2020
Photographs : Edward Hendricks, CI&A Photography
Manufacturers : Ikea, Chai’s Classic Home, Ecolinks, Emperor’s Attic, Golden Teak, Hock Siong, Journey East, Junky Corner, Kang, O2 Plants Island Landscape and Nursery, P+ Capital, Royal Interior, Second Charm, Soul & Tables, Umbrosa, Vintage Palace
Architects : Ministry of Design
Design Team : Colin Seah, Kornpetch Chotipatoomwan (Nong), Yupadee Suvisith (Fai), Justin Lu, Zhang Hang
Developer : Figment, Fang Low, Gan Inn Siang
Painting : Reimage (furniture, artifacts, art) Ong Nga Renovation (walls, stairs)
General Contractor : Forte Resources
Electrician : Logic Engineering
Country : Singapore

Textual content description offered by the architects. Historic dwellings like conservation shop-houses are repositories of reminiscences, with earlier lives and a previous of their very own. Ministry of Design explores historical past and our relationship with the previous, current and future by the idea of layers in Canvas Home at Blair Street. Blurring the boundaries between area and object, MOD conceptually blanketed Canvas Home with a layer of white that gives a canvas for the long run, while revealing historic preservation in concentrated spots. The home rhythmically reveals components of its previous, with Shadows of previous timber in addition to Layers of revealed brick and complex particulars of re-purposed and upcycled furnishings. On the identical time, MOD invitations guests to think about a future with Dream, a text-based neon piece that the studio created, with a quote by Thomas Jefferson that encapsulates MOD’s method to

Canvas House. The quote summarizes the perspective of the home; Colin explains, “it’s a impartial white canvas for the long run to be dreamt upon, slightly than a wholesale homage to the previous.”

1. The Brief and how MOD answered it – MOD has newly accomplished an all-white Canvas Home for co-living, set in a heritage shophouse in Singapore alongside Blair Street. The developer (Figment) gave us a hard and fast finances and four months (design, sourcing & fitout) to re-imagine the interiors, with the intention of renting out the suites to expats for 3-12 month stays. Leases begin from S$3300 a month. The temporary was to do one thing completely interesting to long-stay renters, and a approach for this co-living shophouse to face out. Confronted with a decent finances and a decent timeline, alongside the need for an overarching idea to underpin the strikes, Colin and his staff conceptualized the “Canvas Home”: a. Portray your entire home in white, to supply a canvas for the long run, MOD determined to give attention to “upcycling” to fulfill each constraints. b. Majority of the tables, chairs, chests, mirrors, screens and self-importance desks, had been repurposed and given a brand new lease of life. c. To pay homage to the previous, but give it character for the long run, MOD painted these items all white however carved out “playful peek-a-boo reveals” of vignettes on the ornamental dragon or longevity vases, ceramic plates held on the wall, and picket screens, self-importance dressers and chairs. Not solely is that this extremely sustainable by way of upcycling, additionally it is finances pleasant, time-constraint pleasant, and conceptually putting.

2. “I just like the desires of the long run higher than the historical past of the previous” – Blurring the boundaries between area and object, MOD conceptually blanketed Canvas Home with a layer of white that gives a canvas for the long run, while revealing historic preservation in concentrated spots. P 02 Colin explains, “In relation to adaptive reuse initiatives, the query is all the time the identical, how can we tread the road between the previous and the current? If one opts for the challenge to be nearly preservation, it is nearly as good as time standing nonetheless… which could possibly be paralyzing and inhibiting. However on the identical time, neither can we wish to disregard historical past fully by creating one thing too international or novel. Our response was to layer over the present historical past with a proverbial clean canvas while leaving choreographed glimpses into the previous, blanketing each area and the furnishings in it – permitting us to blur the inherent boundaries between previous and current, object and area.”

To present this spatially, MOD created a text-based neon artwork piece, that includes a quote by Thomas Jefferson that encapsulates MOD’s method to Canvas Home. The quote summarizes the perspective of the home, quoting Colin, “it’s a impartial white canvas for the long run to be dreamt upon, slightly than a wholesale homage to the previous.” Fabricated by The Signmakers, the quote is penned in a single-stroke white and crimson glass neon, and encased in an aluminum field measuring 1.4m x 2.2m x 0.1m.

3. Blurring the boundaries – In a way, the white blurs the excellence between new and previous; it additionally blurs the excellence between the spatial components (e.g. partitions, ceiling), and the objects that sit inside it (e.g. the furnishings and lights). With all the pieces white, object/area dichotomy is blurred. The home turns into extra entire slightly than an area populated by objects and folks that transfer out and in. That permits the folks utilizing the area, to actually activate the area, and be the distinguished options as a substitute of merely inhabiting area.

4. Layers and Shadows – Elements of the previous are rhythmically revealed all through the area, with Layers of revealed brick and complex particulars of pre-owned furnishings, and Shadows of previous timber. This method is utilized to quite a lot of locations, together with spherical timber reveals on the steps all through the four-storey home, and playful peek-a-boo reveals of vignettes on ornamental dragon or longevity vases, classic ceramic plates held on the wall, and picket screens, self-importance dressers and chairs. Historic particulars are preserved in a equally conceptual style, the place brick partitions are revealed in concentrated circles. Within the suites specifically, guests will see “time shadows” solid by the beds, which reveals the underlay of the ground. Working with our builder, we marked out the define of the afternoon-sun shadow and had the painter paint round this define, permitting the mark of time to solid its mark on the bottom.

5.Collaborating with artist Kang to design customized lights MOD collaborated with Kang, an artist who makes a speciality of upcycling and dealing with fused plastic to craft style equipment, to supply his first sequence of lights. A part of MOD’s incubation program, Kang works from the MOD workplace to craft his supplies. MOD collaborated with Kang to create Three units of luminaries with fused plastic created from cling movie, positioned on the five-foot-way, the residing and the atrium areas. Preserving to the theme of layers, the cling movie was layered after which ironed and heated to create a water-proof, leathery materials.

Robinson Adey